August 24 – September 18, 2013

Alex’s goat farm is about 20 hectares (about 50 acres) of organic pasture and farm buildings. She has about 200 goats, of which about 50 are active milkers. The other residents include a flock of 11 sheep, a horse, 7 cats, a handful of chickens and two dogs, Pateau and Etincelle. It is a hectic place with work to be done seemingly at all times!

We rolled right into the routine. It was easy for us to pick up and by the third day there, we no longer had to ask Alex what we should be doing at every moment. Here’s how a typical day went:

8:00 Breakfast
8:30 – 9:30 Give hay and straw to all the goats

Fresh straw for the billies

9:30 – 10:45 Feed and milk the ladies

The milking machine

11:00 – 12:30 Fromagerie

Inside the Fromagerie

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch
14:00 – 18:30 Ladies in the pasture or maintenance around farm

In the pasture

19:00 – 20:15 Feed and milk ladies

The ladies lined up for milking

20:30 – 21:00 Fromagerie
21:15 Dinner

Our first few days started around 7:30am and ended close to 23:00, but once we got the hang of things we started later and ended earlier. We were always offered time to relax after lunch, but mostly just wanted to be useful. Each night we fell asleep quickly and feeling like we had done a solid day’s work.